Matsuo Bashô's famous Frog Haiku is eight words.
Divided into three lines in the original Japanese.
Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto
Yet it has produced numerous translations and
more or less serious interpretations. Some more
than twice as long as the original.
There once was a curious frog
Who sat by a pond on a log
And, to see what resulted,
In the pond catapulted
With a water-noise heard round the bog.
Adapted by Alfred H. Marks
Other less than half. But more expressive.
pond
frog
plop!
Translated by James Kirkup
The leap does not need mentioning. Nor does
the water. Knowing about the pond and the frog
we understand from the plop that the frog leaped
into the water.
Like being there but turned away when it happens.
We still know. Three non-language words is all
our senses would use to tell us.
Or perhaps four. Because a three words translation
excludes a vital part of information. Something
we would have registered if being there.
Into the ancient pond
A frog jumps
Water's sound!
Translated by D.T. Suzuki
An old pond
The sound
Of a diving frog.
Translated by Kenneth Rexroth
More correct to the original. All Bashô tells us
is included. All we would know being there is
included. Nevertheless we are further away from
the experience.
These come closer again.
old pond
frog leaping
splash
Translated by Cid Corman
The old pond,
A frog jumps in:
Plop!
Translated by Alan Watts
The old pond
A frog leaps in,
And a splash.
Translated by Makoto Ueda
The below reads between the lines. It covers more
of the event. All to the rings on the water
of the pond. It prolonges the experience.
To the ponderings.
Breaking the silence
Of an ancient pond,
A frog jumped into water
A deep resonance.
Translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa
Beyond no-thought into the aftermath.
From Zen and beyond and back.
This is perhaps what Bashô meant. Did he know it.
Some say the Frog Haiku came to him at the moment of
his Enlightenment. Did he know that.
Bashô Wrote.
Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto
Word for word.
Old pond.
frog jumps in
water of sound.
Another poem. An equally profound Koan.
But in English only. Unknown to Bashô.
Can it still tell us something.
Source of translations. One Hundred Frogs by Hiroaki
Sato. Weatherhill 1995. With more than 100 translations. Plus
adaptations and parodies.
The Story of Bashô's Enlightenment
Bashô Biography
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